A pro Iranian news site claims hackers from the United States and Israel have tried to shut down their website.
Press TV, which operates in the United Kingdom, says after they released video of the captured RQ-170 stealth UAV, hackers attempted to shut down their www.presstv.ir website. Press TV gave no further details.
“It carries a variety of systems that wouldn’t be much of a benefit to Iran, but to its allies such as China and Russia, it’s a potential gold mine.”-Peter W. Singer, author of Wired for War
Iran has put on public display the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel stealth UAV. The vehicle in the Iranian video matches photos taken of a Sentinel possibly operated from Pakistan’s Shamis air base. Could it be that the real reason for U.S. forces evacuating Shamis is because their precious stealth UAV, nicknamed The Beast of Kandahar, got shot down by Iranians?
Back in January of this year, the buzz on the internet, concerning the appearance of the Beast in Afghan skies, was what was it doing there, it’s just a high tech and highly expensive recon vehicle? It was first spotted over Afghanistan back in 2009. Now, Iranian media says Afghan officials told the Iranian government the Beast was being used to spy on Iran.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps was ordered to hunt down the Beast, and they did. But instead of using real bullets or missiles, they used their Iranian designed electronic warfare computers. This explains why U.S./NATO operators lost control of the UAV: “The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status.”-NATO statement
In fact, reports say that the possibility that the Beast was a victim of remote cyber hacking never crossed the minds of those operating the multi-million dollar UAV.
One reason they didn’t think it was hacked is that, according to John Bumgarner of research company U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, the UAV should have self destructed if it was hacked.
Another UAV ‘expert’ from the United States said “…what the Iranians have is a pile of wreckage, many small and damaged pieces from which they could glean little in the way of technological insights.”-Loren Thompson, Lexington Institute
That was before the Iranians released the video of a near intact aircraft, boy does that UAV ‘expert’ have egg on his face!
So since the ‘experts’ say the Beast should have self destructed if it sensed it was being hacked, and, even if it suffered a malfunction it should’ve crashed into a thousand tiny bits, yet, the Iranians have a nearly intact Beast to publicly display, it strongly suggests that they not only hacked it, but were able to disable any self destruct and land it!
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps say they will reverse engineer the UAV.
By the way, flying a military aircraft into another country’s airspace, without permission, constitutes an act of war under international law. So officially the United States is at war with Iran.
It has just been revealed that another nuclear plant in Japan is leaking radiation. The Mihama nuclear power plant, in Fukui Prefecture, shut down one of their reactors, after failing to stop a radioactive leak.
Kansai Electric Power Company says reactor 2 has been leaking contaminated water since November! A valve has been leaking, and the radioactive water has been collected in a tank, but it is nearing full capacity. The reactor was scheduled to be shut down for inspection on December 18.
This means 85% of Japan’s nuclear reactors are shut down.
The trade war between Chinese photovoltaic companies, and their supposed ‘U.S.’ rivals heats up as the U.S. International Trade Commission votes to continue the Department of Commerce investigation.
I say “supposed ‘U.S.’ rivals” because it turns out the gang leader is owned by a European corporation. Likewise, at least one supposed ‘U.S.’ polysilicon producer is owned by a Chinese corporation.
The U.S. Department of Commerce is set to render a judgment on January 19, 2012. It could mean that actions will be taken to reduce photovoltaic (PV) products (solar power) coming into the U.S. from China. China has responded by investigating polysilicon producers in the United States. Polysilicon is used to make the solar power products.
Hawaii based Hoku International (owned by China’s Tianwei New Energy) announced they will be selling Chinese made photovoltaic modules through a subsidiary called Tianwei Solar USA. Hoku is about to start up a polysilicon plant in Pocatello, Idaho. Their silicon buyers are Chinese companies.
So Hoku is set up in a bad position; action by the U.S. government could hurt their new plans to sell Chinese PV products, and retaliation by the Chinese government could hurt their pending polysilicon orders.
But while looking into this mess, I discovered that what’s really going on is an economic war between China and the European Union, with the United States the battlefield.
The U.S. investigation was started by complaints from CASM (Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing). The lead company in the complaint is SolarWorld Industries Americas. Their U.S. base of operations is Oregon, but they’re actually a German corporation (SolarWorld) headquartered in Bonn.
CASM’s web site says six other companies operating in the U.S. have joined their organization, but they refuse to name the other members. They also have a interesting slogan (being that SolarWorld is a German company): “Solar technology was invented here [meaning the U.S.], and we intend to keep it here!”
CASM, through the U.S. Congress, recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama (sign by dozens of members of Congress), outlining what they call illegal trade practices by the Chinese government. Some of those practices were employed by the city of Pocatello, in trying to get Hoku to build its long delayed polysilicon factory in Idaho.
One of the claims is that “…cheap or free land from local or provincial governments; extensive tax breaks…” This is exactly what the city of Pocatello did to win over Hoku. The land was, in a round about way through huge property tax breaks (equaling the value of the land), given to Hoku. Union Pacific Railway even got involved.
Union Pacific is going to be the main transporter of the finished polysilicon products. Recently it was discovered, by Idaho officials, that in the rush (ironic ’cause it’s years behind schedule) to build the factory, that Hoku forgot to build the required double access roads! Currently the only access to the factory is at the end of a dead end residential street (it was the residents, tired of the traffic jambs, that brought the issue up with officials)!!! Hoku worked some magic with Union Pacific, who’s agreed to build the access roads.
By the way, one of the individuals credited with bringing Hoku to Pocatello, Gynii Gilliam, is now working at the state level as Idaho’s chief economic development officer.
So, the Europeans (specifically Germans, through CASM) are using the U.S. to launch an economic war with Chinese PV makers, but the charges they’re making against local governments in China are also applicable to local governments in the U.S.! The pot calling the kettle black. Unfortunately many ‘mericans (‘specially those working for Hoku, and other polysilicon producers) could actually end up losing their jobs if CASM is successful.
GLOBAL ECONOMIC WAR: CHINESE OWNED HOKU ABOUT TO START OPERATIONS IN IDAHO. WILL U.S. INVESTIGATION INTO CHINESE SOLAR PRODUCTS PUT THE BRAKES ON HOKU’S OPERATIONS?
Southwestern Idaho’s KRTV, channel 12, is no longer a Fox affiliate, and it has ended its Boise area news coverage.
“In the spring of 2011, the Fox Television Network and Block Communications parted company. Although we did offer to sign a new affiliation agreement with Fox for KTRV, they chose to move the affiliation to another station. A network affiliate requires a different business model than does an independent station. As a result a reduction in staff is taking place this week.”-Bill Lamb, Block Communications
General manager of KRTV, Rick Joseph, said “We have some exceptional people here who put forth a terrific and honorable effort every day. But the new business model we find ourselves having to adopt does not include news.”
Employee layoffs began December 5.
Merry Xmas!
“We have been suffering from various diseases for consuming water with fluoride content. We are desperately in need of pure drinking water.”-residents of Jagalur, India
Yet another study proves that fluoridated water makes you stupid, and can cause a life time of pain!
The latest study was conducted in India, and just published in the Journal of Medical and Allied Sciences.
Rats were used, and the results were neurodegenerative and morphological alterations in the neocortex, hippocampus and cerebellum areas of the brain, and in the spinal cord and sciatic nerve.
Neurodegenerative is the progressive loss of neurons, and “morphological alterations” basically means physical mutations.
Researchers say the negative affects with intelligence and pain take place before physical mutations appear: “High levels of fluoride in drinking water (1-12 parts per million) affect central nervous system directly without first causing the physical deformities of skeletal fluorosis.”-K. Pratap Reddy, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India
This is not the first study to say fluoride is bad for you. Over the decades dozens and dozens of studies across the world have resulted in the same conclusion. According to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), there are now 25 studies showing that fluoride makes you stupid.
Studies have also shown a link between arthritis pain, back pain, joint and muscle pains. The research in India was motivated after people in a village named Jagalur, were found to be suffering from all kinds of diseases and chronic conditions. Investigations blamed the fluoridated water.
It’s not just Jagalur. Joint pains, teeth problems, muscular pains, stomach pain and headaches are common among people in Gollaratti, Rajnatti, Gidnatti, Bullolli, Machikere, Marajanmatti, Kechhanahalli, Devikere, Chadaragolla, Gowripura, Kyasanahalli and many other villages who’s water has fluoride in it.
However, the problem in India comes from naturally occurring fluoride in their well water. Here in the United States local and state governments purposely add fluoride to the water.
It turns out that currently, only the English speaking countries add fluoride to public drinking water. In the book The Fluoride Deception, author Christopher Bryson revealed how the push for fluoride use in the U.S. is directly related to the U.S. nuclear program and the pharmaceutical industry.
It turns out there have been many anti-fluoride lawsuits against local municipalities in the United States, however most have not been successful.
Now lets see, English speaking countries are the only ones that intentionally add fluoride to the drinking water, and there’s been a huge increase in chronic pain, and the use of pain killers, among the people of those English speaking countries. Also, there’s been a huge decrease in the overall level of intelligence, no matter how much taxpayer money has been thrown at education programs. And, have you also noticed that the political, business, social and religious leaders of those English speaking countries seem to be making decisions that are more and more irrational? Mmmm, could it be something in the water?
The latest studies of the effects of the massive, and multiple, tsunamis that hit Japan’s northeastern Pacific Coast, shows record seabed shift, and just how far a 140 ton rock can travel.
Researchers from the Chiba Institute of Technology and Tsukuba University, discovered that a 140 ton boulder was moved 470 meters (1,541 feet) by the massive waves. The boulder was part of a breakwater along the coast line of Sanriku region.
Regarding the sea bed, the Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology compared seabed maps made in 1999 and 2004, to those made only days after the March quake. Going by those maps, the sea bed actually slipped 50 meters (164 feet), that’s a record recorded slip! Previously it was estimated the sea bed shifted 24 meters (79 feet). It was also discovered that the sea bed rose 10 meters (33 feet), equal to a 16 story building!
On December 4, Tokyo Electric says they found a leak in a desalinization unit. It’s not a small leak, so far 45 tons of contaminated water has poured out.
What’s really interesting is that the de-salting unit is supposed to be treating water that had already had radioactive contaminants removed. TEPCo is saying the water is contaminated with 130,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter of strontium!
Company officials say it is highly likely that the strontium contaminated water made it into the Pacific Ocean, because there is a drainage ditch nearby leading to the ocean. It’s most likely strontium 90, which has a half life of 28.8 years, and causes many cancers including bone cancer.
TEPCo also made confusing statements; one said workers had checked the unit just 21 hours prior and found no signs of leaking, but then in another statement TEPCo officials admitted they did not act fast enough (a now typical trait of TEPCo management) as it was known that water was building up inside the unit, but they thought it would not leak out.
TEPCO says it will take them two weeks to improve their leak detection of the water treatment units.
“We should announce our decision in the next two weeks. This is not an easy decision, because we have a team of 600 people which is in limbo.”-Meg Whitman, CEO Hewlett Packard
French media interviewed Hewlett Packard’s latest CEO, Meg Whitman. She says what they decide to do with their WebOS system will affect at least 600 HP employees.
Other media reports confirmed that 525 layoffs, made back in September, were the result of ending WebOS hardware production. Since August the system has been up for sale, no takers so far.
It’s strange because as recently as July, Stephen DeWitt, head of the WebOS business unit, claimed that WebOS was so versatile that it could be used in a “universe of devices”.
What happened? Executives at HP have decided to use Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. In explaining the embracing of Windows 8 Whitman also explained why they canceled their number two selling tablet, the TouchPad: “Internet tablets are mainly used to consume media and e-mails. If you want to use productivity software such as Microsoft, you can not…This is an important area in which we want to go.” “We stopped using the products that use the operating system WebOS. We will return in 2012. We will have an internet tablet that will use Microsoft Windows 8.”
The new HP tablet that runs on Window 8 is called Slate 2.
Whitman also talked about the high turnover of HP CEOs, and her plans with the company: “HP has had three CEOs in less than two years. I’m here to stay. Even if my friend Mitt Romney becomes the next president of the United States, I will not join him in Washington.” “We must invest more in storage, networks and servers to align ourselves with our competitors like EMC and Cisco. Our last server, which uses an ARM processor is more efficient in terms of energy consumption. We need these major innovations to differentiate ourselves.”
In November unnamed sources at HP’s, Boise, Idaho operations leaked word of more layoffs. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people work at HP’s Boise facilities. Could the demise of WebOS have anything to do with it? According to the French newspaper, Le Figaro, Whitman said the world will find out in two weeks.
“Major strategic reversals” is one reason why Standard & Poor’s just downgraded Hewlett Packard’s credit rating.
S&P’s also blamed HP’s inconsistent behavior: “We have concerns that HP’s inconsistent growth strategies and high levels of board of director and senior management turnover have elevated the level of operational and execution risk in the near term.”-Martha Toll-Reed, Standard & Poor’s
I’ve written about some of HP’s hypocritical behavior, like laying off hundreds of U.S. employees, buying back millions of dollars worth of their own stocks, then investing billions into their Taiwan operations, and hiring hundreds of employees in Taiwan.
Another dumb move was cancelling production of their TouchPad tablet. Turns out it was the number two selling tablet in the U.S.!
It’s been revealed that HP just spent U.S.$11.7 billion to buy a British software company called Autonomy. $6 billion of that was in cash!!! Couldn’t HP have used that money to keep U.S. workers employed, or improve their products (they really need to)?
Back at the beginning of November someone at their Boise, Idaho, operation leaked that more layoffs were coming. Officially HP is working on a press release to explain it. It’s the start of December now, and still no press release.
S&P’s has downgraded HP’s credit rating to BBB+.